State Location something ????

[elkshead]

With gas and transportation costs on the way up, is it possible to identify the location of things for sale?
I live in Washington State and would like to buy stuff for my Cub. I'd like to be able to search items by state or region.
I think State would be best. Anyone else? Thanks

[Jim Becker]

Everyone has been asked to fill in their profile location with their 2 letter state/province followed by anything more specific thay care to add. People don't all do that but all we can do is ask.

[elkshead]

How about 1 level up? Before opening the ad . . . see the state. Like in the big space beside the ad title.

[Rudi]

While that might be a good idea for a few, the biggest problem would be implementation. For an idea such as that, you would have to have pretty much total compliance on members completing their profile. We cannot seem to get them all to do that now. Also, I think that this becomes a bit ornerous, having to have another individual box for the state in the headers or to open up first. Remember the Classifieds are a tertiary adjunct to the main fpurpose of the fourms.... which are the forums. It would also be just IMHO, but I think the site admin already has way too much to do to keep the forums working as well as they do. If the main objective of the site was the classifieds, then it might be a viable option, but I really think we are lucky to be able to have the 4 subforums in the classifieds that we have.

Some of the work has to reside with us, and it all cannot be point and click, with little input from users.

There is also another small problem with having the state first say in the title line. The maximum available characters would be affected if we had to take out a specific number to include the state. Also remember, the forums are also international in scope, and that also would have to be taken into account.. different countries.

Right now we have the best of all worlds with the forum and profile setup we have. The trick to make it all work is for each and EVERY member to update their profile and include their state. That way you know right away. Also here is another side benefit for the way it is. Whilst looking for stuff in your specific area, and I know the Pacific Northwest as well as much of the Pacific side of both the US and Canada is kinda light on Cubs and Cub accessories, it is a good idea to be able to know the prices of these articles country wide. It helps to keep it all in perspective and prices competitive.

That is just my opinion though.

[Joe Malinowski]

I too like to see the state there, I also just noticed Rudi's ebay ID listed also that is a good thing to know .

[elkshead]

Thanks everyone. Just my own idea. I do realize that everyone involved with the publication works very hard to produce it and the quality product it is.

[jpcubs]

I agree with Rudi nothing has to be changed. I have made me a sheet with Zip codes so I know where the location is. If they don't put zip code in add, I move on and if everyone done that the people wouldn't get what they wanted. It wouldn't be long before they they would update profile. Thanks to the team for this wealth of information and don't forget (for FREE). Thanks again jpcubs

[danovercash]

Can the member list still be sorted by state ?

[Barnyard]

Can the member list still be sorted by state ?

Dan, it can still be sorted, but like Jim said, not everybody fills in the info. I just did a quick check and found there are 5,200 members and 3,500 of them left that line blank. Why? It's not like somebody is going to track them down.

[Boss Hog]

that 3500 are not very active on the forum I bet
Boss

[Barnyard]

that 3500 are not very active on the forum I bet
Boss

That's true. the other side of this is therany active members who don't have their location posted in the right way for sorting. putting the state after the city makes it difficult to search. If there is a . after the state name instead of a , it will not always sort those locations together either. They key is not just getting the info out there, but doing it the same so it can be sorted in groups.

[Brandon Webb]

Could we get maybe the state picture next to everyone's profile? Visual aid to help us. Or possibly larger location Font? And location should be mandatory somehow someway.

[Dale Shaw]

If I see something I am interested in, and there is no location I do 1 of 2 things

1) If there is the zip code, I highligt the code, right click and click "search Bing" and it will give me the location.

2) Reply with "where are you located?" Works for me every time. If I am needing something, it is incumbent on me to ask the questions and find the information.